Jim Flaherty’s final days: Fleeting three-week retirement filled with family and golf dreams

OTTAWA — Jim Flaherty’s fleeting three-week retirement featured treasured dinners with family, friends and plans for a summer golf trip to Ireland with some of his closest buddies.

The former finance minister’s sudden and shocking death reverberated on Parliament Hill on Friday as politicians paid poignant tribute in the House of Commons.

The dominion carillonneur played Irish melodies from the Peace Tower at noon, shortly after MPs remembered Flaherty for his dedication to public service and his good-natured sense of humour. Many of them wore green ties in honour of the longtime parliamentarian.

Flaherty will be given a state funeral Wednesday, sources say.

Details emerged about Flaherty’s final days and hours.

A government source said that Labour Minister Kellie Leitch, a medical doctor, administered CPR to the 64-year-old Flaherty before paramedics arrived at his condo in Ottawa’s Byward Market area on Thursday.

Leitch and Flaherty lived in the same building, and had dined together on the eve of his death. Flaherty enjoyed a hamburger and was in good spirits during their dinner.

The source says Leitch went to his condo the next day in a frantic attempt to save her mentor. The labour minister declined to comment on her heroics when reporters asked her about it outside the House; she cited patient-physician confidentiality.

A witness outside the condo building said she watched at about 12:30 p.m. ET on Thursday as a flurry of RCMP, police and paramedics descended upon the scene.

About an hour later, she said she saw Flaherty, his body largely concealed beneath medical paraphernalia, being wheeled out of the building, a distraught woman by the side of the gurney. He had died of an apparent heart attack.

“They had covered him with equipment,” said the witness, who didn’t want to be identified because she is a government worker. “I saw his feet.”

An emotional Leitch delivered her party’s tribute to Flaherty in the House of Commons on Friday.

“His legacy is immense. His service was overwhelming,” she said, at times fighting back tears. “He loved his country and served it with a heart as big as the country itself.”

Leitch recalled how in 2010, she was standing in a clinic when “the short Irishman” called her and said: “’I hear you’re running for office.’ I said ‘I am not running for office.’ But he said ‘I hear you are running for office’ or in the kind of tone of ‘I have decided you’re running for office,’” she joked.

Voice cracking, Leitch ended with an Irish blessing:

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

“I loved you immensely, my fierce friend, and I will miss you forever,” she said.

Flaherty’s wife, Ontario MPP Christine Elliott, and his three 23-year-old sons were gathering on Friday to make arrangements for his funeral. There was no immediate word on where or when the funeral would be held.

Since his retirement last month, Flaherty, known for stoicism in the face of his battle against a rare and painful skin condition called bullous pemphigoid, routinely told friends and colleagues that he was on the mend and feeling good.

Even in his resignation statement, Flaherty insisted he was “on the road to a full recovery” and that his decision to step down wasn’t related in any way to his health.

But others said they’d worried he was exhausted and struggling with his condition. Liberal MP Scott Brison, who also paid tribute to Flaherty in the House, said that he met with the finance minister at his Parliament Hill office in late January and was concerned.

“I hadn’t realized how much discomfort he was dealing with,” Brison said in an interview.

“But despite the obvious pain he was in, he continued to serve and didn’t complain a bit. In his career and in his life, he had ups and downs, he had defeats, but these defeats didn’t stop him or define him.”

Chisholm Pothier, a former spokesman for Flaherty, said his friend’s final weeks had been pleasant despite his ongoing health issues.

He had recently celebrated the birthday of his triplet sons in Ottawa, and the one-time finance minister and his friends were excited about their upcoming golf trip.

“They were planning their annual Ireland trip; they were working on that,” Pothier said. “They go and they golf and they have a couple of pints and have a great time. It was something they were really looking forward to.”

Pothier added ruefully: “Three weeks was not enough for him to enjoy his just rewards.”

Leitch agreed that Flaherty was looking forward to a bright future since stepping down as finance minister.

“Here’s a fellow who had the opportunity for a next great career,” she said.

“He had had a bit of a weight taken off his shoulders, and he was looking forward to spending the summer sailing and spending time with his triplet boys. But you know, the business world was one that was open for him, and I know that he had had many individuals approach him because they wanted his intellect. They wanted his brilliance at the boardroom table.”

Files from Postmedia News and National Post staff

TRIBUTE TO THE HON. JAMES MICHAEL FLAHERTY, P.C., M.P.
by
The Hon. Dr. K. Kellie Leitch, P.C., O.Ont., M.P.
Minister of Labour and Minister of Status of Women

House of Commons
April 11, 2014

Mr. Speaker, I ask everyone to pause and look at their dictionary this morning. Under Irish they will see a leprechaun with a twinkle in his eyes and fierce determination behind them, my good friend.

It is with sadness that I stand in this place of honour today to pay tribute to a great national leader, a colleague, a mentor, my champion and a very close friend, the Hon. James Michael Flaherty.

Am I remembered in Erin;
I charge you, speak me true;
Has my name a sound, a meaning;
In the scenes my boyhood knew;

Jim Flaherty’s name has a meaning for all Canadians, a meaning a respect, of passion for country, and empathy for others.

The deep sense of shock and loss we all felt at Jim’s passing yesterday tells us how much of a part of all of our lives he had become. Whatever our politics or local interest, Jim Flaherty was so clearly working hard every day for what he saw as our country’s economic interests.

As one of the country’s longest serving finance ministers and the longest serving Conservative finance minister, as he used to remind me regularly, Jim truly made a difference in the lives of Canadians, by lowering taxes, introducing initiatives such as the children’s fitness tax credit, and by creating the tax-free savings account and the registered disabilities savings plan.

His acute intellect, his immense compassion for the disadvantaged and the disabled, his global reach on international monetary and regulatory challenges were all part of his deep humanity and decency. He gave his all to serve a country he loved.

As he said just three weeks ago when he departed as the minister of finance, “We live in the greatest country in the world, and I want Canadians to know that it has been honour and privilege to serve.”
Despite his unwavering commitment to public service, Jim never lost sight of what was truly important. He loved his family, he loved his home town of Whitby, and he loved to kick back with a tall glass of Guinness, as often as he could.

Jim never forgot the humble working class roots that were established at the dinner table with his family in Lachine, Quebec. In fact, while attending Princeton, and later earning a law degree, Jim bussed tables in the cafeteria and drove a cab.

He believed in hard work, and I think he mentioned that often, and making a positive difference in the lives of Canadians. It was with this “can do” attitude that he became a mentor and champion for me personally, and for many of his colleagues, both in this place and abroad.

For me, I can speak to him being my champion on two specific occasions. I was at a conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico of all places in 2006. He was a newly minted finance minister. He called me and asked me if I would chair a panel on the children’s fitness tax credit.

He said to me that they needed some health expertise, and that did not exist at Finance Canada. He wanted someone from the health care profession.
The opportunity that he granted me in doing that, a young Canadian, a Canadian who was but 35 years of age, was that I had my first experience of the development of excellent public policy. I could take my professional background and apply it to public policy, and millions of Canadians became the beneficiary.

I have been very privileged as an orthopedic surgeon. I meet hundreds of patients in clinic, children and parents, but public policy, as we all know in this place, impacts all Canadians in a meaningful way and he understood that.

He taught me that. It created a passion for me at one point in time, so that I would then move forward. Yet again, 2010, I was standing in clinic, and the short Irishman called me and said “I hear you’re running for office.” I said, “I am not running for office.” He said, “But I hear you are running for office”, in the kind of tone of “I have decided you are running for office”. I said to him “I don’t recognize an election going on right now. Maybe we should have a conversation about this.”

He explained to me the circumstances in my home riding and encouraged me to run in the nomination. He was persistent. It was not something I was wont to do. In fact, he called probably every day, if not every second day for five months. If you know his fierce determination as I do, I think many people in this place do, you finally just say “yes” because it is easier than taking the calls.

He often got his way that way, persistence being one of his great attributes. For that I had the opportunity to be involved in a nomination and now to stand in this place.

He reached out across Canada, across party lines, across business and labour divides to seek consensus and advance fairness, something I hope to emulate during my time in public service. I know no one who expresses that more than Jim Flaherty.

When the shocking and crushing news reached the chamber yesterday, I was delighted to hear that the long knives that typify question period in a competitive parliamentary system were set aside for a moment of common humanity, consolation and people reaching out to each other beyond partisan divisions.

The Jim Flaherty I knew, the Jim Flaherty we all know, would have approved of that. And for those who do not know, back in the late sixties, Jim did in fact canvas for Pierre Elliott Trudeau and he always used to say that his sister made him do it because he was the baby brother.

It was also a sad day when Jim recently retired as Minister of Finance, not only because we were losing the greatest finance minister this country has ever seen, but because his new seat assignment in the House of Commons was directly behind me. Time and time again over the last three weeks he teased me relentlessly, in fact vowed to make rabbit ears behind my head while I was speaking. Unfortunately, he never made it here.

Jim will be so very missed and not forgotten. He will be remembered for his big Irish smile, the twinkle in his eye, his wicked sense of humour and his trademark ties. And most importantly, his multiple public policy accomplishments over his nearly 20 years of public service.

His legacy is immense. I am confident that everyone in the chamber and every Canadian can point to something where Jim Flaherty touched their lives. His service was overwhelming, his friendship for those of us who benefited from its breadth, warmth, depth and humour was the ultimate definition of loyalty.

He loved his country and served it with a heart as big as the country itself. The gap he has left will not soon be filled.

My friend,

May the road rise up to meet you;
May the wind be always at your back;
May the sunshine warm upon your face;
May the rains fall upon your fields;
And until we meet again;
May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.

To my dear friend, Jim, I loved you immensely my fierce friend and I will miss you forever.